Sunday, May 13, 2012

Poem for Sunday, Great Falls, Much Ado

We try a new drug, a new combinationof drugs, and suddenlyI fall into my life again

like a vole picked up by a stormthen dropped three valleysand two mountains away from home.

I can find my way back. I knowI will recognize the storewhere I used to buy milk and gas.

I remember the house and barn,the rake, the blue cups and plates,the Russian novels I loved so much,

and the black silk nightgownthat he once thrustinto the toe of my Christmas stocking.

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Quickie because I just stayed up too late talking about The Avengers with Adam, who planned to see it with his two best friends after dinner out, then ran into a bunch of other friends who worked on tech with him and they all went to the movie together. (They debated who is hotter, Loki or Thor, hahaha.) Earlier I had a nice, quiet Saturday morning, not doing a lot besides folding laundry, because son graciously shared his cold with me; he was studying for his AP exam, so we saw little of him till after lunch.

In the mid-afternoon, we went to Great Falls, where we walked along the towpath toward Swain's Lock instead of climbing on the rocks. We saw four families of geese with goslings, the canal boat mules, herons, cormorants, and lots of other birds, insects, and some turtles. There was a Civil War camp set up by reenactors outside the Great Falls Tavern and we talked to some of them about medicine and goods carried by Union soldiers.

In the evening while Adam was at the movie, we watched a recording of the David Tennant-Catherine Tate Much Ado About Nothing. It was fantastic -- hilarious, wonderfully acted, perfectly paced, and really well filmed considering that the action takes place on a revolving stage where it's impossible to see all the actors all of the time depending on one's perspective in the audience. We had thought about going to see The Taming of the Shrew at Olney, but I wasn't feeling great and we'd have had to leave hours early to get tickets, so I am just as glad we stayed in!

Three-week late Fannish5: Five characters who could give a great speech.1. George VI, The King's Speech ("For the second time in the lives of most of us we are at war.") Shut up, he totally counts as a character.2. Kira Nerys, Deep Space Nine ("If he was at Gallitep, he is guilty. They're all guilty.") To be fair, Sisko is also a phenomenal speaker.3. Sarah Jane Smith, Doctor Who/The Sarah Jane Adventures ("Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love.") Give me her over the Doctor for pep talks.4. Boromir, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ("Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy!") I actually think he's a much better speaker than Aragorn.5. John Blutarsky, Animal House ("Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?") FIGHT ME.

Two-week late Fannish5: 5 favorite deleted scenes (that you wish hadn't been deleted). Some of these are actual deleted scenes, some are scenes that I know were filmed but weren't included, and some are scenes that SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED DAMMIT.1. The Houses of Healing, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King2. Who were Moony Wormtail Padfoot & Prongs, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban3. Sybilla's arc with her son, Kingdom of Heaven4. "The Name of the Game", Mamma Mia5. George V's funeral, The King's Speech

One-week late Fannish5: 5 instances of theories getting Jossed (fanon or common fanfiction tropes being invalidated by new canon), Kripked (fanon or common fanfiction tropes being confirmed by new canon), or some combination of the two. The Voyager finale, "Endgame," Jossed absolutely everything that ever mattered to me about the show. Am I still bitter? Always.1. Janeway went nuts. After getting the crew home the way she always said she would, through hard work and perseverance, she tossed that aside and violated everything sacred to a Starfleet officer.2. Torres stops being engineer, becomes mommy. That's what all women want, right?3. Janeway/Chakotay and Doc/Seven? Screw you, fans. Let's mindlessly throw Chakotay and Seven together, even though it both makes no sense for the characters and destroys two relationships that have been developed over years.4. A reset button can wipe out an episode, a season, even an entire series! A lesson heeded in the reboot by throwing out the entire Star Trek canon to date in place of Abrams' personal version of it. 5. Forget the lessons of "City on the Edge of Forever," forget the lessons of The Wrath of Khan, forget the lessons of First Contact -- your own happiness is all that matters. Not the needs of the many, not the continuity of time. Forget the sacrifices made during the Dominion War, forget the suffering of the Bajorans during the Occupation, forget that the old enemy Klingons are now Federation allies -- those are things that could have been changed before they started, so they are meaningless. Forget the journey that is life, the necessary losses, the way sometimes sorrow leads to happiness later. Think of exploration only as a means to an end, and when you don't like what you find there, rewrite all of history to serve yourself.

Farewell for the season, Caps. At least the Nationals and Orioles both won.